The outer da.UpdateCursor is open on a feature class in the same workspace as the featureclass where the da.SearchCursor is open in the 'GetOperArea_SpatialIntersect' function. So, it seems you cannot open an Update Cursor and then open a SearchCursor on the same workspace and expect to update the original cursor.

I am sure I could rewrite the code to start and end edit operations on the Update cursor. I only structured the data in the same workspace for testing purposes - in production this will not be an issue in my case.

The outer da.UpdateCursor is open on a feature class in the same workspace as the featureclass where the da.SearchCursor is open in the 'GetOperArea_SpatialIntersect' function. So, it seems you cannot open an Update Cursor and then open a SearchCursor on the same workspace and expect to update the original cursor.

I am sure I could rewrite the code to start and end edit operations on the Update cursor. I only structured the data in the same workspace for testing purposes - in production this will not be an issue in my case.